THE party games started in earnest at Limerick City and County Council’s Budget 2026 meeting last week.
Musical chairs were the game of choice for the different political “groupings”, which according to Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil members, are a figment of some people’s imagination.
Councillors certainly got their steps in at their all-you-can-eat-cream-buns-soiree. The brawling factions were up and down like the Curragower Falls all day as they had their private pow-wows with Mayor John Moran.
You’d have sworn his lordship was going to be giving them a go on his flashy mayoral chain, they were so eager for quality time alone with him and his advisors — particularly his besties in the FG and FF front.
Of course, in fairness to them, they were only doing their utmost to get the best deal they could for the poor auld serfs in the lowly outposts of the principality.
The big cash prize bonanza kicked off at 10am with a long-drawn-out speech from his excellency, which gave council members a light reprieve to catch up on some much-needed beauty sleep before the fun and games truly began.
But alas, after all the blood-splattered bouts we’ve witnessed in the council chamber of late, Budget Day, for those of us looking on, at least, was a far more subdued affair than was expected.
All the brutal hand-to-hand combat took place behind closed doors, leaving those in the cheap seats baying for blood, a tad downhearted. And as anyone in local politics will tell you, the first rule of Budget Day secret meetings is you do not talk about Budget Day secret meetings, especially the backroom brawling end of things.
Business, for the most part, was conducted quietly in private quarters, much to the exasperation of a few cranky auld craturs.
“If I ran my business like this it would be bust in the morning,” Fine Gael councillor Adam Teskey bawled — clearly in desperate need of his three o’clock siesta.
When the FF and FG top brass finally did arrive back into the chamber shortly after 5pm they had a noted spring in their step, and were grinning like gameshow hosts. The Mayor, on the other hand, looked like a man reconsidering his life choices with his newly acquired ‘ghost of Christmas past’ disposition.
Finally, white smoke!
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.